Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to secure the borders and unleash the Canadian economy after President Donald Trump threatened 25% tariffs on Canada if it doesn’t cut down on illegal immigration.
In response to Trump’s “unjustified” tariff threats against Canada, if it doesn’t secure the border to stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling, Poilievre called on the Speaker of the House to permit an emergency debate on the issue.
As two-way trade between Canada and the US accounts for $960.9 billion of Canada’s trade, over 60% of its trade in 2022, and nearly 40% of Canada’s economy, Trump’s imposed tariffs would be catastrophic for Canada.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Poilievre said Canada had an “unprecedented weakness” and called on Trudeau to respond to the tariff threats by making Canada’s economy competitive and securing the border.
“Justin Trudeau must put partisanship aside, not just for the sake of Team Canada, but for the sake of our people, and fully reverse his liberalization of drugs,” Poilievre said. “Ban them, prosecute those who traffic in them, secure our borders against the illegal importation of fentanyl ingredients, put people in treatment and recovery to bring our loved ones home drug free, that is necessary now more than ever.”
He noted that under Trudeau, Canada’s per-capita GDP is smaller than when he took office nine years ago and has dropped more than any other G7 country since the year before the COVID lockdowns. He said Canada now has the most indebted households, the worst housing inflation, and a quarter of its population in poverty, with two million reportedly lining up at food banks.
“Food prices have risen 37% faster in Canada than in the United States of America,” he said. “Our economy is teetering on the brink of collapse, and now we face this renewed threat.”
He demanded that Trudeau cancel his proposed quadrupling of the carbon tax, cancel his cap on oil and gas, end US tariffs against Canadian lumber, fight against Buy America policies, and fix the immigration system by ensuring terrorists don’t enter the country, and deportations are correctly managed.
“The Prime Minister has to put aside partisanship and, in the spirit of Team Canada, cancel his energy cap, which would see Alberta and Saskatchewan produce 35% less energy at a time when we need those jobs,” he said. “It is our biggest industry and our biggest export.”
He also added that Canada needs to rebuild its military in light of Trump’s campaign promises to withdraw support from Canada if it doesn’t meet its NATO targets of spending 2% of its GDP on defence by 2032. He said one way to do this is for Trudeau to immediately announce a stop to his plan to cut $1 billion from the Department of National Defence budget.
Poilievre vowed to support what he called a “Canada First” response if elected and sympathized with Trump’s desire to do the same for his country.
“President Trump has the right to put his workers and his nation’s security first. I will put Canada’s workers and Canada’s security first,” he said. “We need a prime minister with the strength and the smarts, the brains and the backbone to stand up for this country, to rebuild our security, our military and our economy. That is what I will do.”
Trudeau responded to the tariffs Tuesday, saying he and Trump discussed the issue over the phone and has organized a meeting with Canada’s premiers to address the incoming US administration.
“We obviously talked about laying out the facts and how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth. We talked about some of the challenges that we can work on together,” Trudeau said. “It was a good call. This is something that we can do, laying out the facts and moving forward in constructive ways. This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on, and that’s what we’ll do.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc hosted a press conference on Tuesday to also address Trump’s proposed tariffs.
Freeland said Trudeau’s phone call with Trump was an opportunity to highlight Canada’s mutually beneficial economic relationship with the US.
“The fact is, we need them, and they also need us. Canada is the largest market for the US in the world, larger than China, Japan, the UK and France combined,” Freeland said. “The things we sell to the United States are the things they really need. We sell them oil, we sell them electricity, we sell them critical minerals and metals, the energy the United States imports from Canada is more important today than ever.”
Freeland affirmed that Canada would come out fine by the end of negotiations, saying it’s survived US tariff threats in the past by threatening tariffs on its own, leaving the possibility of retaliation open.
Poilievre criticized Freeland and Trudeau, saying that they have been saying Canada will be fine since Trump’s election and that they should have seen this coming had they paid mind to Trump on the campaign trail.